You don't go any faster on the downhill, and probably not much faster up.
It's just easier to go up really steep trails and over technical features.
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eBike Electric MTB---Wow!
- Thread starter newfydog
- Start date
It's just easier to go up really steep trails and over technical features.
You are right this is an electric motorcycle not an E bike. I don’t even know if e-bikes existed then. Owen was riding a pedal bike long before the electric motorcycle & he is now a true pedal powered Mountain biker along with the rest of his family. He also has a motorcycle and is getting pretty good at that as well. They ride dirt bikes on the dirtbike trails and mountain bikes on the mountain bike trails It is a family affair.
I don’t know that the electric motorcycle was a gateway to mountain biking, But it was a way for him to be able to share the afternoon with the adults.
So, what are your pluses and minuses?
I saw an Ebike for the first time about 3 weeks ago when I picked up my son at Univ. of Vermont. I was killing time and walked into a ski shop that sells bikes for the summer. I saw an Ebike, city style, and asked if that was an electric bike. After starting the conversation with a sales person, she showed me all the different brands and models of ebikes that the shop sells. When she showed me the mountain bikes, especially the full suspension models I just started to laugh. I asked do you actually sell many of these, and the answer was yes. I then asked if "old people" were buying these? (full confession, I am an old person in denial) and she said no, mostly people with money in their 30's. I just laughed again and said this just isn't right. I guess I am entitled to my opinion, and I don't apologize for it. Honestly, I would have to give it some serious thought, but if you want a mechanical power source, be it a gas motor or an electric motor, go ride the motorcyle trails. I did for a long time and I now ride a mountain bicycle on a lot of hiking trails where it is allowed and just feel that is right. Human power deserves its own place that is shielded from motorized or electricized vehicles. You can make an argument that a bicycle is a mechanical advantage, and yes it is , but it is still a person supplying the power, not a human invention. Its like porn, you just know it when you see it.
Just to add another thought, an ebike for the street makes total sense to me. It should NOT be on the sidewalks with pedestrians. It should be on the roads with all the other motorized vehicles.
Just to add another thought, an ebike for the street makes total sense to me. It should NOT be on the sidewalks with pedestrians. It should be on the roads with all the other motorized vehicles.
Just saw this Ebike today. Wow. If you dont look at the BB it looks like a typical high end MTB.
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I only know of one person riding an E-bike in Stowe. He is in his 80's and has been riding since the 80's. He has had heart problems and just cannot ride a regular bike anymore. I have no problem with him riding an E-bike. I think it is great. There are those who feel that all e-bikes should be banned. When I read this thread and I see people who don't ride saying "hey maybe if my bike had a motor I'd like mountain biking", I just want to say "you don't like mountain biking".
We were just at Mammoth and they have a whole fleet of E-bikes along with their regular full suspension mountain bikes. I talked to some of the guys who were manning the rental corral and they say the bikes have been great so far, shuttleing the riders has been noticeablely less with these.
OK maybe he gets a Ebike pass, who says I have to be a hard ass all the time?
Maybe there should be medical ebike passes, like handicap parking passes?
How about old fart passes, since we go slower we don't chew up the trail as much?
I took a little spin on an E-Bike yesterday. It was kinda interesting and dare I say FUN.
First off this 650B behemoth weighed FIFTY pounds
and it cost more than any 4 bikes I own together.
But in the HIGH range (said to give TWO solid hours of boost, you can easily travel at twice your normal rate of speed (depending on trail conditions).
This bike was a 'pedal assist' setup, which means you will feel the boost when you pedal the bike. The bikes owner said he usually rides it in the low setting (5-6 hours) for some serious trail travel. I did not try it in that setting as you gotta go to "11" to see what its got... right!!!
Now I won't be buying one (TOO expensive) nor would I want to pedal out of challenging terrain on a 50 pound bike if the power system were to fail or just run out of juice.
But I'll take it for another ride if it's offered for sure!
It's not MTB'n as we think of it, but it's a fun way to get out there and travel impressive distances in half the time, see the sights, etc. So I give it a
First off this 650B behemoth weighed FIFTY pounds
and it cost more than any 4 bikes I own together.But in the HIGH range (said to give TWO solid hours of boost, you can easily travel at twice your normal rate of speed (depending on trail conditions).
This bike was a 'pedal assist' setup, which means you will feel the boost when you pedal the bike. The bikes owner said he usually rides it in the low setting (5-6 hours) for some serious trail travel. I did not try it in that setting as you gotta go to "11" to see what its got... right!!!
Now I won't be buying one (TOO expensive) nor would I want to pedal out of challenging terrain on a 50 pound bike if the power system were to fail or just run out of juice.
But I'll take it for another ride if it's offered for sure!
It's not MTB'n as we think of it, but it's a fun way to get out there and travel impressive distances in half the time, see the sights, etc. So I give it a
I took a little spin on an E-Bike yesterday. It was kinda interesting and dare I say FUN.
First off this 650B behemoth weighed FIFTY pounds
But in the HIGH range (said to give TWO solid hours of boost, you can easily travel at twice your normal rate of speed (depending on trail conditions).
This bike was a 'pedal assist' setup, which means you will feel the boost when you pedal the bike. The bikes owner said he usually rides it in the low setting (5-6 hours) for some serious trail travel. I did not try it in that setting as you gotta go to "11" to see what its got... right!!!
Now I won't be buying one (TOO expensive) nor would I want to pedal out of challenging terrain on a 50 pound bike if the power system were to fail or just run out of juice.
But I'll take it for another ride if it's offered for sure!
It's not MTB'n as we think of it, but it's a fun way to get out there and travel impressive distances in half the time, see the sights, etc. So I give it a
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- Nov 12, 2015
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Who are you and what have you done with Bill Talbot?
OK, I was shamed into riding it
(but it wasn't half bad..)
fwiw... it was my first time on;
full suspension MTB
disc braked anything
drop post with lock/release
E-Power
(probably missing some but I was overwhelmed...)
My buddy is a cop in downtown Toronto..the regular beat cop guys don't even bother with e-bikes. They literally ignore them unless they actually cause an accident. They've basically been given every exception to the Highway Traffic Act. Apparently the traffic cops know the rules and will sometimes ticket them. I sit and look out my window at work and watch people cruise down the sidewalk at 20mph and think, that's not right. But what to do? You don't require a license (we call them DUI cycles..), you don't have to know the rules of the road, you can ride wherever the f* you feel like, you don't need insurance so if you hit someone, tough luck. I don't know what to say other than we're certainly not in front of the problem...
As for off-road, if I'm grinding up a hill and you have power assist and want trail right of way, go f* yourself!
Like 4ster said, I'm willing to let the ebike thing play out a little further before passing judgement. But I have some sympathy for concerns above for use of these things in urban/suburban environments. I've been bike commuting on multi-use trails for the last 13 summers in the Wash DC area. The number of bike commuters has surged during that time. In the last three years I've seen ebikes come on the scene in growing numbers too. For the most part they have not caused any special problems. However, they are part of something that has me concerned. The bike trails I ride to get from the suburbs to my job in the city are changing from fitness oriented users to commute oriented users. These asphalt trails are often narrow with poor sight lines and not the safest for lots of fast moving users, especially when you add walkers/joggers. The bike trails are becoming commuter arteries almost like highways. Something is going to have to give. I know getting people out of cars and onto bikes is a worthy goal,, but the trail system is not designed to handle massive commuter bike/ebike traffic. it's not that bad yet, but i see it coming and ebikes escalate the situation because they bring new, commute oriented riders going at fairly high speeds.
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I don't get it. Can one ride a regular bicycle on the sidewalk? Geez, what's up with Toronto?? Those racoons which go where they please and dine openly on garbage, now bicyclists owning the sidewalks. It's a jungle! I get that 'racoon' has two 'o's' making them special, but 'bicycle' has none.
Ha, that wasn't the whole argument.
Mad River originally banned snowboards because exiting their single chair on a snowboard required a side push. This caused problems with the lift chairs swinging sideways and they had to hire an extra liftie to keep order. Then they decided it wasn't worth the expense so they banned them. Sometime in the 90's, Betsy Pratt, owner of MRG, was confronted by people protesting the lack of snowboard access. There was a yelling of "Now I know how ni__ers felt in the South!" That pretty much sealed the deal for her and the ban held.
The coop could vote to allow access. (I wouldn't mind if they banned telemarkers or forced them to learn how to ski moguls.) That lift is still dumb. There's a support right where you get off so you have to go sideways. God forbid they change it to make it sensible. Free the heel, lose the mind.
Taos didn't want them because they'd ruin the steep narrow chutes. Fat skis sort of made that moot. The economics of losing families because someone snowboarded made it unsustainable.
Aspen, Ajax, originally claimed the same about steeps and the issue of collisions on crossing trails. But also the whole lifestyle thing. But the ban kept people away like Taos.
Yeah you don't know the half of the racoon story!
So the rule is, if your self-propelled bicycle has wheels larger than 20" in diameter you're not allowed on the sidewalk. Further ANY motorized vehicle is not allowed on the sidewalk other than mobility scooters. So e-bikes are not allowed on sidewalks, they're not allowed on bicycle paths. They theoretically are allowed only on the street. You don't need a license or insurance. So if you hit someone you're SOL if you're the hittee. You're supposed to wear a helmet but most don't. Now I don't really care if they get smushed on the street but I do care if they hit me or someone else on the sidewalk or bike path. Meh..As for racoons...you can't see inside the garage and the garbage peeps don't look in the black bags...
As a driver, it is really difficult to account for a bicycle on a sidewalk, moving much faster than a pedestrian, that could at any moment switch to the road, moving much slower than a car.
Of course, when I'm on the bike, I see exactly why this sort of "lane swapping" happens ... but it's still not great for predictability.
Of course, when I'm on the bike, I see exactly why this sort of "lane swapping" happens ... but it's still not great for predictability.
OK, I was shamed into riding it
(but it wasn't half bad..)
fwiw... it was my first time on;
full suspension MTB
disc braked anything
drop post with lock/release
E-Power
(probably missing some but I was overwhelmed...)
I understand this is one step away from owning a Tesla.
One big ass step at that.
